AMA 01/03/2020

Opens the January 3rd 2020 livestream wishing Bitcoin a happy 11th birthday and reflecting on a decade of crypto's global rise.

Predicts a decade of accelerating technology including brain computer interfaces, private space travel and mainstream VR and AR.

Forecasts big gains in electric vehicle range and battery density plus a boom in solar, wind and energy storage this decade.

Expects quantum computing, 5G and self driving cars to reshape the decade alongside another economic collapse similar to 2008.

Predicts an African nation like Kenya, Ethiopia or Nigeria will reach the economic prominence of Brazil or South Korea this decade.

Frames the decade as a privilege to witness, predicting traditional media outlets give way to long form independent voices like Joe Rogan.

Sets Cardano's decade goal of becoming the top cryptocurrency with a billion users and thousands of tokens as a social operating system.

The three pillars needed for success: getting the technology right through peer review, commercialization and aligned incentives.

Announces a Cardano first strategy where IOHK builds new products on Cardano before Atala, citing the Ethiopia and Georgia projects.

Compares Cardano's staking incentives to Bitcoin mining, describing lessons learned from over 500 stake pools on the incentivized testnet.

Frames the goal as displacing Bitcoin as the top platform for dApps while paying tribute to Bitcoin's role as the industry's gateway drug.

Calls for collaboration across crypto projects instead of zero sum rivalry, describing the future as an internet of blockchains.

Previews January releases including the Haskell wallet backend paired with the Rust node, then the Haskell Shelley testnet and mainnet.

Pushes hard on Plutus and Goguen, arguing the Plutus and Marlowe smart contract model beats Ethereum's EVM, plus an Ethereum interoperability plan.

Highlights recursive SNARK research, congratulating the Electric Coin Company on Halo and detailing IOHK's own Sonic based work since 2018.

Introduces the Kachina private smart contracts paper as the first of several publications on private computation for regulated industries.

Details sidechain research including a Lattice paper built with the Horizen project to move value and identity across chains.

Credits the incentivized testnet community response, comparing the grassroots enthusiasm to the rapid growth of the 2008 Ron Paul campaign.

Promises monthly product updates from Cardano's senior product manager and the Cardano Foundation as an accountability mechanism.

Commissions McCann to lead a Cardano brand refresh and marketing overhaul in coordination with the Cardano Foundation.

Requests a formal 52 country Africa strategy and a Japan liquidity strategy from the Cardano Foundation board, pledging personal travel to the region.

Answers whether staking rewards from the formal specification will carry over faithfully from the Rust incentivized testnet to the Haskell node.

Another ITN style snapshot is unlikely unless there is a long gap before mainnet, noting new exchange listing infrastructure for pool operators.

Confirms familiarity with Enigma's secret contracts, pointing to Cardano's own Kachina, Ouroboros Royale and Kaleidoscope research.

IOHK wants a Coinbase listing and will do everything possible to make it happen.

IOHK avoids product cannibalization using Apple's MacBook versus MacBook Air as an analogy for scoping separate product lines.

Contrasts Atala's permissioned ledger design for regulated data like medical records with Cardano's open public ledger.

Lists other verticals IOHK may chase with special purpose products including privacy, IoT and social media, each scoped separately from Cardano.

Gives an update on the New Balance sneaker authentication pilot, noting its future depends on New Balance's decision to scale it.

Reveals a planned University of Wyoming donation in ADA to fund an authentication lab, calling it the first academic institution to accept ADA.

Explains why brand authentication for luxury goods like Chanel handbags and Rolex watches is a huge underserved market.

Instant settlement and fast finality for everyday purchases like ADA barbecue payments will arrive with Hydra.

Acknowledges expected instability on the incentivized testnet, noting the wallet backend and Daedalus are stable while the Rust node still needs hardening.

Clarifies that staking rewards come from a front loaded inflation schedule, comparable to moving future Bitcoin block rewards earlier.

Updates on the Ethiopian government project's feasibility study stage, describing the path from study to pilot to a competitive RFP.

Targets USENIX for the Hydra research paper submission, hoping to publish it publicly by February.

Timelines for staking support on hardware wallets like Ledger, covering firmware updates, multisig designs and a possible move to BLS signatures.

The roadmap does not need rescheduling, expressing confidence Shelley, Goguen and Voltaire version one can all ship in 2020.

Plans a rewrite of the network layer Pollcast into Pollcast 2 with original author Spyros, following a post mortem from the incentivized testnet.

Jabs at Ethereum for adopting Cardano style epochs and slots after publicly criticizing Cardano, comparing rival chains to competing Python versions.

Confirms to a viewer that Cardano's brand and marketing refresh is starting soon with a first McCann deliverable due in January 2020.

Jokes about a challenger backing out of a boxing or MMA match, framing missed opportunities as a life lesson.

Condemns private prisons and prison labor economics as a national failure that financially incentivizes incarceration.

Welcomes an Ethiopian viewer and points them to African operations director John O'Connor for ambassador opportunities.

Criticizes political tribalism and the loss of nuanced, independent critical thinking in modern discourse.

Condemns the Soleimani airstrike and rising tensions with Iran, warning of an unnecessary path toward war.

Criticizes incoherent US trade and foreign policy under an inexperienced administration overseeing an unaccountable federal bureaucracy.

Rejects both the sitting president and an opposition offering unrestricted socialism, describing the two party choice as a false binary.

Argues the US electoral system is rigged by gerrymandering and incumbency, predicting no real change even after the 2020 election.

Presents blockchain based governance, voting and private money as direct solutions to America's institutional dysfunction, not just a developing world tool.

A path where Wyoming's blockchain integration into IDs and voting spreads state by state toward a constitutional convention.

Proposes structural reforms including breaking up federal bureaucracy, ranked choice presidential elections and requiring governors to approve war.

Warns another financial crisis is inevitable given negative interest rates and unsustainable debt in the US, Japan and China.

Jokes about the Erik Voorhees and Nick Szabo debate and riffs on how easily opinion polls can be gamed.

Addresses stake pool saturation caps, describing plans for on chain voting over protocol parameters like block size and the K parameter.

Invites Bitfinex to list ADA after eight months of testing, offering the foundation's help.

Downplays vanity media coverage like the John McAfee Vice News segment, arguing usage and adoption matter more than visibility.

Reviews Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker as an apologetic fan service heavy fix for The Last Jedi's backlash.

Pitches an R rated Darth Vader movie directed by Logan's James Mangold and praises Blade Runner 2049's cinematography.

Ties attention to detail in great products to the passion behind Cardano's formal specification, citing the original Apple computer as an example.

Reviews Netflix's The Witcher, praising Henry Cavill's performance.

Confirms plans to increase the K parameter for stake pool saturation, noting it comes at a cost.

Taking lion's mane mushroom supplements for neuron regeneration, citing a Japanese dementia study.

Shares an anecdote about his father unexpectedly meeting mycologist Paul Stamets in Gillette Wyoming.

Details a 25 pound weight loss through intermittent fasting, a personal trainer and nutritionist.

Answers a computer science student's internship question, saying IOHK is not hiring interns currently but Emurgo or the Cardano Foundation might.

Dismisses a question about the ADA price and argues rival projects criticizing Cardano is a sign they see it as a threat.

Praises the technical merits of Algorand and Dash's treasury model while criticizing Tezos's foundation troubles as harmful to the whole industry.

Argues Cardano's scientific talent, peer review process and community loyalty make it uncatchable by rival projects long term.

Declines to comment on the Trump Putin relationship, saying he stays out of sanctioned countries and prefers working through technology.

Talks farm animals including new mini donkeys and alpacas, plus a plan to help bring back woolly mammoths through genetics.

Recommends JavaScript or Python over Haskell as a first programming language despite pointing to a good Haskell textbook.

Shares bulletproof coffee digestion tips and plans to buy a personal flotation tank.

Praises Brendan Eich's Basic Attention Token and Brave browser as a model product with clear scope and sustainable incentives.

Recalls declining an invitation to a North Korean crypto conference and warning a colleague who ignored State Department advice and was later detained.

Avoiding Iran despite a strong Iranian Cardano community, citing US sanctions and historical parallels to authoritarian regimes.

Frames the mission of the technology as building trust, interdependence and shared prosperity across nations divided by sanctions and policy.

Reacts to China's 20,000 ton gold reserve with a desert island thought experiment arguing gold has no intrinsic value, people create value.

Compares Spain's silver glut to the Netherlands' capitalist boom to argue natural resource wealth doesn't guarantee economic dominance.

Predicts the 21st century stays an American century thanks to leadership in ICT, nanotechnology and entrepreneurship.

Proposes solving climate change through carbon scrubbers and fourth generation nuclear power instead of global government.

Closes the stream wishing Bitcoin a happy birthday and Cardano a prosperous decade toward becoming the top cryptocurrency.